Facing a Minnesota Wild team that was desperate for points, had played the night before in Philadelphia, and had forged a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes, the Caps put the hammer down in the final frame getting Alexander Ovechkin’s 40th goal of the season on the power play, Dmitry Orlov’s game winner via a Harlem Globetrotters type move, and a huge victory clinching save from Braden Holtby with 33 seconds left en route to their 3-2 triumph at the Verizon Center.

Washington once again found themselves in penalty trouble in the first frame, taking three infractions, although the first one on Brooks Oprik was a total joke. The Wild capitalized on the third of those three man advantage situations to forge a 1-0 lead on Mikko Koivu’s shot that went five hole on Holtby. It was the 14th time in the last 17 games that the Capitals allowed the first tally. Their first frame was not very good once the parade to the box began and they were outshot on goal, 12-3, and 22-8 overall in shot attempts. It was an ugly period and Koivu’s tally, with 52 ticks left in the opening frame angered #70.

“Just over anticipating. I think they use a lot of tip plays and different things like that. Karl [Alzner] was in the lane and somehow the puck snuck through there. I need to be tighter there. Those are the plays I’ve been working on lately to solve, you don’t see the puck, but you still make the save. I didn’t do that,” said the Holtbeast afterwards on that first goal.

Coach Barry Trotz was not happy with his team’s play in the opening 20 minutes and he noted following the contest that he told the team they had to fix the problems themselves. It wasn’t about X’s and O’s, it was about playing the right way. In period one, Washington was very sloppy with their passes, they were losing the loose puck battles, and were making poor decisions.

They started the second period with a vengeance and Oprik scored his second goal in four games, and his sixth point in six tilts since returning from a 40 game absence due to injury, just 54 seconds into the middle frame. But another costly mistake on defense allowed Nino Niederreiter to get a breakaway on Holtby and he beat him top shelf at 5:05 of the second to regain the Wild’s one goal lead. After a few more rough minutes, the Capitals started to get their legs going and at the end of the period the shot attempts were 24-23 for Minnesota for those 20 minutes. Trotz told the media after the game that in the second period “we started fixing our battles.”

In the third period, the Caps really amped it up against a club that looked exhausted playing on back to back nights and their third game in four nights. They were also missing their top forward in Zach Parise, who was out due to injury. Ovechkin scored blocker side on Darcy Kuemper (24 saves) with the man advantage after Matt Niskanen gave him an absolutely perfect pass, which was hard to do on this evening. Carrie Underwood held a concert at the Verizon Center on Thursday and the ice was downright horrible. As one member of the media said to me, “It’s no surprise the ice is bad, because Carrie sure can melt some ice.” Isn’t that the truth and the surface was equally bad for both teams? Pucks were bouncing everywhere and skaters were falling down without even being touched.

But Washington fought through that and to their credit, they started owning the loose pucks as their coach preaches to them to do. The Caps had their fore-check going and were relentless in the last 20 minutes of this one. Orlov’s goal came after Andre Burakovsky made a nice cross ice pass to #9 and then he put the biscuit through his legs like he was Curly O’Neal and fired a backhander on the cage that Kuemper allowed to squeeze though his pads with 5:04 remaining.

The Caps then really buckled down and when they needed a big stop, the Holtbeast delivered. It was Braden’s strongest game (30 saves) in recent memory and he did it with his former bench boss, Adam Oates, the man who wanted him to play deeper in his net, in the house (Oates apparently is a paid consultant to Parise and Ryan Suter of the Wild).

The victory was Holtby’s 39th of the season and he is 31-2-3 in his last 38 games. Holtby did have to make several big stops early in this one and he also was run into by Niederreiter in the first frame. All around the league I’ve continued to see players making contact with goaltenders and the infractions are rarely being called. It’s becoming super dangerous to be a goalie these days. Kings Coach Darryl Sutter, just last week, commented on how Jonathan Quick continues to get run when he plays, as well. Following Friday’s win, I asked Holtby about this phenomenon.

“It’s one of those things where you solve the problem, but you create another one by putting the reviews in. There’s no reason for refs to call goalie interference anymore because they know it’s just going to go to review if it’s a goal. You knew that was going to happen and that’s no fault at all of the referees because if they make a mistake with the ability to have a review, then that’s not a good thing either. So we just have to play through it and hope it doesn’t cause any damage,” stated the Holtbeast on the recent trend of goalies getting run over.

My take, the referees need to enforce the rulebook and do a better job of protecting the net minders before some goalie gets seriously hurt.

After this third period domination, and the Caps lead the NHL with 80 third frame goals to just 48 allowed, they move to 45-11-4, good for 94 points. That is just sick and unbelievable and it ties them with the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for most wins in a team’s first 60 games in NHL history.

Speaking of sick and unbelievable, how about that Gr8 guy, who now has scored 40 or more goals in eight NHL seasons? Ovechkin became the seventh player in NHL history to record 40 or more goals in eight of his first 11 seasons, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy, Marcel Dionne, Brett Hull, and “Lucky” Luc Robitaille. He’s the 10th player in NHL history to post at least eight 40 goal campaigns. Those stats are all courtesy of the Capitals excellent public relations staff.

So now it is on to Chicago to face the Blackhawks on Sunday afternoon at 12:30. GM Stan Bowman is intent on trying to win his fourth Stanley Cup in seven years. On Thursday he traded for forward Andrew Ladd from Winnipeg and then on Friday he added forwards Tomas Fleischmann and Mike Wiese from Montreal and defensemen Christian Ehroff from the Kings (who was in the minors after being waived). Those are some good moves, but it remains to be seen how Coach Joel Quenneville will integrate his new troops. After Friday’s win, Coach Trotz joked that the Caps weren’t even going to pre scout the Hawks for Sunday’s game because they have like eight new guys. Too funny!

Speaking of jokes that are also somewhat serious, Coach Trotz was clearly not thrilled with another bad start and he stated afterwards, with a sly smile, that “we’ll go on a walkabout on Saturday to see if we can find our game.” Clearly the coach who holds everyone accountable is a Crocodile Dundee fan.

Here’s to hoping that on Sunday in Chitown the Caps come out as sharp as Dundee’s knife, for once.

Notes: Orpik had another fantastic game logging 24:44 and going +2. He had eight hits and five blocked shots. #44 is really playing well and his lengthy injury absence has to help Washington for the stretch run because the 35 year old is dealing with much less wear and tear…on the bad news front, John Carlson did not play due to a lower body injury and Coach Trotz confirmed that it is the knee that forced #74 to miss 12 games after Christmas. It remains to be seen if he will need the knee “to be fixed,” but the Caps huge standings point lead and the depth they have on defense, which will increase when Mike Weber joins the team (his wife had a baby on Thursday), allows the club to be extra careful and work to get Carlson right for the post season…Ovechkin had an assist on the Orpik tally and Nicklas Backstrom had two helpers in the game, as well…Sunday in the Windy City starts a stretch where the Capitals will play six games in nine days.

WNST EVENT NOTE: Please come out to Buffalo Wild Wings on Monday night (February 29th) in Belair, Maryland as Nestor Aparacio and I will be interviewing Coach Trotz. There will also be trained personnel in attendance who will be swabbing people for the Bone Marrow Registry in an attempt to continue to fight Leukemia. It’s an easy process, so please come on out, eat some wings, listen to the coach talk hockey, and support a great cause!

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The Gr8 scored on the power play at 16:19 of the second period to notch his 500th career NHL goal and become the fifth faster player in NHL history to reach that plateau. Oveckhkin needed 801 games to achieve it, and he also added #501 in the third period.

But when the aforementioned players hit 500, they did it in a different era when games were higher scoring making it easier to achieve that amazing feat a bit quicker. Gretzky did it 575 games, Lemieux in 605, Bossy in 647, and Hull in 693.

Once the Gr8 notched his tally off of a nice feed from Jason Chimera (three assists), his teammates all poured off of the bench to congratulate him while the Verizon Center went absolutely nuts.

Having attended Capitals games since 1974, the year of their inception, I’d have to put Ovi’s 500th goal in the top five or no worse than top 10 great home game moments in Caps history. The Dale Hunter goal against the Flyers in 1988 is likely number one followed by the Fedorov series winning goal in 2009, Kuznetsov’s series winning tally last spring, and perhaps the Southeast Division clinching regular season win in 2008 over Florida. Sunday was a significant event in Washington hockey history and Ovechkin agreed.

“It is a special moment. It is nice to be in that category. It is really hard to score in this League right now system-wise… If you get to 30 goals, 35 goals, you’re lucky. Without my teammates help, without the system, how we play, it is very hard to do,” said the man who seemingly can get a shot directed on net from just about any position in the offensive zone.

As for the game itself, well it was a rout with Washington winning, 7-1. The Caps jumped off to a quick 2-0 start and they totally dominated Ottawa in that opening frame with a goal from Justin Williams after a sweet feed from Andre Burakovsky (two assists). Then the Capitals received a power play and with the Sens shading towards Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie received a super pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov and buried an easy one from the slot.

The Caps out shot attempted Ottawa, 22-13, in the first period. The second period started not as well as the Capitals were a bit sloppy and Mike Hoffman scored his 20th goal of the season after a Washington offensive zone turnover. The Senators had a good chance or two to tie things up, but Philipp Grubauer (32 saves) came through with some clutch stops. Zach Sill, returning from a two game suspension, would answer the Senators push, scoring his 1st goal of the season just two and half minutes later after a weird bounce in front of goalie Andrew Hammond (29 saves).

Washington then settled down and Dmitry Orlov ripped one home with Ovechkin screening in front to make it 4-1 before the game was halfway over. An Ottawa tripping penalty by Mark Stone then set the stage for Ovi’s milestone tally that pushed the lead to four goals.

With a 5-1 lead, the Capitals didn’t sit back and Tom Wilson and Ovechkin scored before the 10 minute mark of period three to increase the margin to 7-1. The last 10 minutes pretty much became glorified preseason hockey as Coach Trotz chose to spread the ice time around.

With the victory the Capitals improved to a staggering 32-7-3 (67 points) and lead the Dallas Stars by five points in the NHL standings, with two games in hand. In the Eastern Conference they are 11 points up on the Florida Panthers, who despite winning 12 straight hockey games, can barely gain any ground on Washington. In their division, the Caps are 18 points up on both the second place Rangers and Islanders. It’s amazing to think where their record could end up after 82 games, but Williams was having none of that talk after the contest.

“It’s not about winning 50 or 60 games this year, it’s about winning the last game this year.”

Coach Trotz’ crew continues to win hockey games despite playing so many times without their full lineup. John Carlson, Brooks Orpik, Marcus Johansson, Jay Beagle, and Mike Richards will hopefully all find themselves playing when things matter in the spring, but the bench boss noted that he jokingly told those guys that “they better not screw it up” when they get back in.

Seriously, though, this is a very good team and Washington has been able to develop some depth while key players have been out of the lineup. It is something that is not easy to do, but it’s been necessary for the Caps.

“It’s a tough thing to do in this league because it such a good league, to win and develop players at the same time. The good thing is they are developing because they are shown the right way. It starts with leadership, and the group pulls the guys into the fight or practice habits. And it pays off in a lot of ways for us,” said Coach Trotz when asked about the development of blue liners like Aaron Ness and Taylor Chorney, among others.

It has been a magical ride so far and Ovechkin’s fireworks just past the midpoint of the season were truly special. He is not only playing well individually, but he’s constantly a leader for his club on a daily basis.

“Knowingly or unknowingly, he improves everybody’s demeanor. Once you see Ovi, he’s got this smile on his face. He’s always happy to be around. He love scoring goals and it’s infectious. It carries on and he’s playing some great hockey,” finished Williams.

The Caps are having fun and they keep piling up the victories, however, there is only one goal for this Washington team this year, as Williams stated above, so stay tuned.

Notes: Nicklas Backstrom had three assists in just 16:09 of ice time…Burakovsky was injured on a hard shoulder to shoulder hit in the right wing corner in period two. He played just 34 seconds in period three and did not return. Coach Trotz said he’d know more about his status in the next day or so…Matt Niskanen played 9:30 in the first period, but thanks to the Caps big lead, he logged only 12:17 the remaining 40 minutes, which was important because he’s been overloaded in Carlson’s absence…Nate Schmidt led the Capitals in ice time with 22:21…Washington will not practice on Monday and will be back on the ice on Tuesday. Their next game is Thursday at the Verizon Center against Vancouver.

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Alexander Ovechkin became only the 11th player in NHL history to score 50 goals in five or more seasons on Tuesday night as the Capitals crushed one of the NHL’s elite, the St. Louis Blues, 4-1.

As good as the Gr8’s shot was to score that 50th marker and give Washington a 1-0 lead, his pass to Nicklas Backstrom that pretty much sealed this contest to make it 3-1, was probably better. It was a sweet move and pass to a streaking #19 in the slot at even strength and took any life the Blues had remaining with just 1:10 to go in the middle frame. Ovechkin would also had another assist on Backstrom’s second goal of the night just 16 seconds into the third period in the Capitals victory. For Ovechkin, it was a three point night and he now has 77 points in 75 games this season.

Backstrom’s two goals give him 17 for the season along with 60 assists for 77 points in 79 games. They are two of the top players in the NHL and their success goes hand in hand, for the most part.

Braden Holtby received his second straight start in net and he was dynamite, especially early on when the Blues dominated the play. Holtbeast stopped 28 of 29 shots in this contest. Overall the Caps were out shot attempted 80-32, but part of that disparity is score effects as the Capitals grabbed the lead midway through period two.

The Blues have what some consider to be a Stanley Cup contending squad, but the Caps were able to defeat them soundly twice this season. Holtby played a big role in those victories and Tuesday’s victory was the second straight for Holtby (he was great against the Islanders on Saturday in a 4-3 shootout win).

The Caps were without the services of Mike Green and Jack Hillen on defense, so they iced Connor Carrick and Julien Brouillette as a third pair. Tyson Strachan received top four minutes with Dmitry Orlov and handled himself well. John Carlson continued his beast of a season notching two assists and logging 26:35 of ice time.

Up front, Mikhail Grabovski chipped in the game winning goal on a sweet shot from the left circle. All four of the Caps goals were on lasers and they were finally able to defeat Ryan Miller, who previously stopped 75 of 77 Capitals shots in two games this season as a member of the Buffalo Sabres.

Despite the nice victory, the overall news of the night wasn’t great. Both Columbus and Detroit won their contests and the Caps “tragic number” is down to two points. Basically any combination of Columbus points gained or Caps points that adds to two gives the Jackets a playoff berth while the Capitals would head to the links.

At this point it is, what it is. Washington did not get it done enough times this season and find themselves very close to elimination.

But on Tuesday night in St. Louis they can take pride in the Gr8 hitting 50 goals and gaining a solid victory against a Stanley Cup contender.

Notes: St. Louis dominated the Caps from the dot going 42-16…Ovechkin was +1 in 16:37 of ice time…the other 5+ time 50 goal scorers in NHL history are Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemiuex, Bobby Hull, Brett Hull, Mike Bossy, Guy Lafleur, Pavel Bure, Marcel Dionne, Phil Esposito, and Steve Yzerman…next up for the Caps are the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh on Thursday night.